Make a directory a working copy without checkout?

Question

So I am doing a project for my school but the problem is my school computers run deep freeze. Is there any way I can use SVN and make a directory a working copy without checking out? Does anyone know how SVN remembers if a directory is a working copy? Is there some config file I can save on my network drive?

Thanks

Answer 1

SVN knows if the directory is a working copy by the presence of a hidden .svn directory which contains information about the working copy.

As far as a working copy without checking out, I think what you can do is do a checkout with empty depth. So from the SVN command line:

svn checkout http://url/to/repository trunk --depth empty

This will make a working directory with nothing in it, and you can later do an update to actually pull the content.